Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has announced that its weapon systems solutions division—Digital Fusion Solutions (DFSI) subsidiary was a critical team member of Aerodyne, which was awarded a contract with potential value over $105 million to provide technical and engineering support for the US Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Project Office. Kratos and the Aerodyne Team have been performing mission critical UAS-related work for this extremely important National Security customer for the past five years.

Under the Project Manager, Army UAS Technical Services contract, Kratos-DFSI will provide significant technical expertise to support the UAS Operations Center, as well as all UAS Platforms and functional divisions, in the areas of operational readiness, flight hour/sortie historical data, maintenance action records, and all standard army management information systems (STAMIS) data elements.

DFSI supports PM UAS-wide automation initiatives and system sustainment activities such as the UAS dashboard, the UAS portal/intranet, custom database applications, automated processes and workflows, and Lean Six Sigma business process improvement efforts.

The team’s five-year contract has a base value of more than $9 million, with five additional options. If all options are exercised, the contract value will exceed $105 million. The work will be performed primarily at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

Indeed, over the longer term, payload manufacturers—particularly at the higher end—must continue to struggle to meet the key unique selling point of UAVs, that is to say their ultimate expendability, while meeting demand for more advanced technology and suppressing costs. Visiongain believes this will remain a determinant of the size of UAV payload market—and the UAV market itself—going forward.